Alive
by Fullmetalsoul0062
Summary: And it was only in her arms that he felt truly alive. Because she was always there for him, no matter what. Pepperony. This fanfic is the first meeting of Tony and Pepper after she failed to pick up the phone, and what happens afterwards.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- I have writers block on all my other stories, so this was just something that popped out of nowhere. And if you read any of my other stories, you will know that I have been suffering from a severe addiction to Iron Man and The Avengers. So this is the result of that. Sorry if any characters seem OOC. Hope you like it.**

**Alive **

Tony's POV

Tony sat there munching on shawarma, staring into space, thinking of the one he had thought he was about to die in earlier. Banner, who was sitting on his left, reached over and stole some food of Tony's plate. He didn't have the energy to argue. The greasy, yet delicious food slid down his throat. Everybody sat in silence, not one of them couldn't bother to speak or do anything really. And seriously, they had just saved the Manhattan from being blown up, and the world from being taken over by aliens on jet-skis. So, Tony thought, they probably deserved the rest. He looked over at Natasha and Clint, amused to find that they were both quite happily sitting very close to one another. They really should just admit they were in a relationship and get it over and done with. Thor was busy digging in to his food, leaving Tony wondering about the Asgardians metabolism. Capsicle seemed pretty relaxed to Tony, but it wasn't like he knew anything about the guy, so he guessed it could mean anything.

He stared out of the window onto the ruin of what was Manhattan. People were already starting to try to clean some of the rubble of the streets. S.H.I.E.L.D. had removed the bodies of the dead aliens, worried in case anybody had the smart idea to try to experiment on them. Firemen were dousing the fires, police tape stopping civilians from going into potentially dangerous areas. He watched, almost mesmerised bt the reflective jackets glinting in the sunlight. Thor shifted in his chair and Tony almost leapt up in surprise, but actually only flinched. This small movement was enough to catch the attention of everybody though. Tony reasoned that they were still on edge from the battle. Hell, he was still struggling to believe he was actually alive.

He held his hands up, as if surrendering. "Sue me, I'm jumpy."

Clint rolls his eyes, smiling slightly, while Bruce just shakes his head at his friends antics. Thor looks confused, probably wondering what being sued meant. Natasha and Steve had blank looks on their faces, but to Tony it was like they were screaming out, 'Typical'. Or that may just have been bad judgement. Eventually though, they stop staring at him, and move their hands away from their weapons, going back to eating shawarma. Tony just smiles as he realises Bruce has completely finished of his food when he wasn't paying attention. He goes back to staring outside. More civilians are coming onto the street now, easy to pick out from the emergency service workers. They were mingling around, and Tony could hear people calling out names of loved ones. It makes him feel disappointed in himself. Those were the people he hadn't managed to save. Even as he had flown through that portal in the sky, he had been thinking about the people he could save. Not the people he had failed to.

And then all he could think of was that dark space, the abyss. And he realised that he was terrified of it. But that wouldn't defeat him. Because he was Iron Man, and nothing could defeat Iron Man. Right?

And it was then that he heard on voice on top of all the others shouting outside. It was desperate voice,almost pleading. And it was most definitely Pepper. He could see her now, and he was trembling, because he loved her more than anything he ever had before, and she was coming to him. She was a small figure amongst a throng of people, but he would have been able to pick her out from a mile away, and not just because of her hair. She had spotted him now, he was very recognisable at the moment, what with still wearing his battered up Iron Man suit. And she was running, despite her clothes, and the heels she was in. Nobody else had noticed her, but she was the only thing Tony could see right now. He abruptly stood up, gaining the attention of all the Avengers again. And he knew they were talking to him, asking him questions, but he had no interest for them right now.

And then he was running, and she was running, and when they collided just outside of a goddamn shawarma restaurant of all places, he expects maybe a kiss, or even an intimate hug, but all he gets is a very annoyed Miss Potts slapping him across the face. He notices the Avengers now, Bruce, Thor and Steve all looking slightly worried, while the two spies look amused, both for different reasons. Natasha because she actually knows who Pepper is, and why she is slapping Tony, and Clint because he just finds it funny that Iron Man is getting hit in the face by a girl.

Pepper is shouting at him now, tears rushing down her face, and all Tony can think about is how he never meant to hurt her so much.

"Why? Do you even know what I was thinking when I saw what the HELL you were doing? How reckless are you to a fly a bomb, a BOMB, of all things into PORTAL THAT HAS APPEARED OVER MANHATTAN?"

She was running out of steam, and even though he can predict the consequences of what is going to happen next he still corrects her.

"It was actually a nuclear missile."

Pepper glares at him. "Oh yes! A nuclear missile! How silly of me! Because that makes it SO much better, doesn't it?" She's crying even harder now, and all Tony wants to do is hug her and at least try to make her feel better. It's the least she deserves after putting up with all the stuff he has done over the years. So that's what he does. He wraps his arms around her and holds her tight, and whispers promises into her ear. He'll never do something so stupid again, he won't ever make her worry again, and he'll never leave her.

"But why Tony?" She whispers. "Why is it always you?"

He hugs her tighter and whispers back. "I don't know Pep. I just don't know." And then all he can think is about that hole in the sky, and the nuclear missile scraping against his back. The steep upward climb to reach the portal, J.A.R.V.I.S. asking him if he wants to phone Pepper, and the vastness of space when he reaches it. The black emptiness, the way he feels so small and meaningless just being there. And then he lets go off the missile, and red and orange and black and blue invade his vision, as well as the glittering stars, yet all he can look at is the small box in the corner of his vision. The picture of Pep, and he's glad, because even if he didn't get to tell her one last time that he loved her, he could at least die looking at her smiling face. Because she was the reason he was here in this endless nothingness. Because he had never needed a reason to live. He had just needed someone to die for. And he had found her. But then he was falling, and he knew it was going to end soon, with him falling. And fall he did. Weightless and seemingly care free he fell, into space's lulling embrace. And he shut his eyes in the hope that it would be like falling to sleep.

But then he was back on earth, back in Pepper's arms, because he didn't know how, but somewhere she had started hugging him instead of the other way around. And nothing mattered anymore, because instead of falling to his death, all he had done was fall straight into Pepper's arms. Pepper, the one person who had always been beside him no matter what, who had accepted everything that he had done, and had never left because of it, unlike everybody else. And she had accepted him, and still accepted him, no matter how broken he was inside. And that's why he loved her. They stood like that, and Tony got J.A.R.V.I.S. to monitor her heartbeat, and he could hear it playing through his sound system. He could see her chest moving from breathing, and that was what kept him going. Because in rhythm with her heartbeat was his own. Because it was only in her arms that he was reminded that he was _alive._

_And he stared into the abyss, and the abyss stared back._

**A/N- Thanks for reading. Please review! Even if you are reading this like two years after it was published, REVIEW! Seriously, I live of them. Thanks anyway!**

**Fullmetalsoul0062**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N- Hello! So... yep decided I would put another chapter in here. Basically the rest of the Avengers thoughts of what happened in the last chapter. And a bit at the end as well. Hope you enjoy!**

**Chapter Two**

Bruce's POV

After changing back from the Hulk, Bruce could have happily slept for 2 days. But one thing had to come first. And that was food. The shawarma was something he had never tasted before, even with his ranged diet after living in India for a year or so. It felt good to have food that had pretty much no nutritional value in it, unless you count E numbers and an overdose on salt and fat, slide down his throat and satisfy the Hulk's endless need for food that got worse the longer he was... "out".

He looked over at Tony who was staring of into the distance. Bruce wondered vaguely if he would be able to get away with it. It wasn't like Tony was eating all of it himself. His hand snealed across the table, and grabbed some of Tony's food. Bruce could see the smile on Tony's face, and although he had been seen, he had gotten away with it! He wished that Tony would be as friendly as he was towards Bruce to the other Avengers as well. He felt like he was the only one who understood Tony on any level, despite having only known him for like, three days.

Then Tony jumped, and Bruce automatically looked at him. He felt the Hulk stirring inside him, but he knew that he wasn't actually going to make an appearance. And for that he was glad.

Tony was busy grinning and holding up his hands in surrender. "Sue me. I'm jumpy."

Bruce smiled, amused by his friend's sarcasm. He was also smiling at Thor's dumbfounded expression at the word 'sue'. Somebody should really get him caught up to today's world. He sat there, thinking about how they all had had to accustom to some sort of change over the past few days. Thor was obvious, Barton had had his mind taken over by a crazy god and was just back to grips with reality, Tony actually had to be part of a team and work with others, Steve had been thrown from the 1940's seventy years into the future, then had to deal with aliens. Natasha had dealt with her partners mind being taken over and had had to fight him. He had been forcefully removed from India and dumped on a helicarrier, then sent of into a lab to work with the one and only Tony Stark who had turned out to be a pretty nice person.

By this point he realised he had eaten all of Tony's food, and he was about to give him a sheepish apology, when Tony leapt up from the table and started to run out onto the , and alll the other Avengers, stood up and started to jog after Tony, worried about what had happened to make him dash of like that, for apparently no reason.

Natasha started yelling after him. "Tony! Where are you going?" Clint and Steve echoed this with their own shouts of Tony. Bruce followed them more slowly. And then he saw someone else running towards Tony. It was definitley a girl anyway. She looked like she had been crying, but Bruce had no idea who she was.

Steve's POV

We all stood up, and I know I for one was wondering what had possessed Stark to run off like that. I shouted after him, then noticed why he was running. He was actually running towards someone. And they were running towards him too. I stood there wondering who on earth was running towards Stark, when they reached each other in the middle if the street. And then she slapped him in the face. I was about to step forward and enquire on why she was doing such a thing, when Natasha put her arm out in front of me, blocking the way.

"Don't." She said seriously.

The woman opened her mouth and started yelling at Tony for flying the missile into space. I wondered who she was to Tony, then paused as I realised that they probably... like were... did... uhhhh... went for fondue together. I am almost pitied Tony, if that was even possible, this girl reminded him slightly of Peggy. Then all pitying thoughts went out of his head as Tony said, "It was actually a nuclear missile.

She exploded. I cringed.

"Oh yes! How silly of me!"

Tony really should learn when to be quiet, or else he was going to get himself into a lot of trouble at some point. She kept shouting at him until she ran out of steam, and I had to give credit to her for staying around him if she actually expects this kind of stuff. I was really surprised that Tony had a girlfriend, if that's who she was to him, because myimpression of him was a self-centred idiot who took nothing seriously. It seemed hard to imagine him in a relationship with someone. Maybe I had gotten him wrong though. Because there is no way someone would stay beside him and support him if he acted like that all the time, could they?

I stood there in shock, when they started hugging, and whispering to each other, and I was wondering if we should give them some privacy, but nobody was moving. I was left wondering if the 21st century meant that you didn't have privacy anymore.

Clint's POV

When Tony had been slapped in the face, Clint had barely been able to contain himself. Iron Man himself had just got hit in the face by a girl. Not that girl's were weak or anything like that, Natasha was living breathing proof of that. But still, Tony didn't even look very shocked. Clint could tell that he was going to like this girl, since she had just had the guts to go and hit Tony Stark in the face.

But then came the awkward hugging scene. Well, it wasn't awkward for the huggers, but it was damn awkward for Clint, who was standing of to the side, next to Natasha. Tony and the woman were whispering to one another, and from where he was standing Clint could make out some of the words.

"...ver leave you, I promi..."

"...ove you so muc..."

He shifted his weight onto one foot, wondering if this was going to end anytime soon. He was kind of surprised about Tony being this emotional though, because however short of a time Clint had known him for, he really didn't seem like he did this kind of emotional things. Ever. At this point Tony and Pepper, were on their knees, arms wrapped around each others necks. I looked over at Natasha, surprised to find she was smiling, albeit slightly. I turned to Steve, wondering what his reaction was going to be. He was just standing there a little awkwardly, like me. The girl was crying even harder now, and Tony attempted to comfort her, stroking her head, and pulling her closer to him. She raised her hand to his chest, and placed it directly over the arc reactor.

Clint was amazed by the fact that _Tony Stark_ was acting so caring towards someone. He had read Nat's report on him, and nothing that it said in it had ever indicated Tony as loving or comforting. It had, in fact, said the complete opposite. And Natasha was never wrong.

Tony's POV

They were on their knees now, her arms around his neck, and his hand planted firmly on either sides of her head, cradling it. It pained him to see Pepper, the strong person that she was, reduced to tears because of him. But he knew if he hadn't flown that missile up, he would have had no way of knowing if she had been outside of the explosion area. He couldn't have risked that. He could feel her hand over the arc reactor, just one of the ways of knowing that he was alive, and not going to go away.

He stroked her hair, and pressed his lips gently against hers. She kissed him back, and he couldn't remember ever being happier that he was _ alive _and with the woman that he loved, and would continue to love for the rest of his life. He opened his mouth and murmured, "Dismantle, J.A.R.V.I.S."

The suit fell to pieces around him, and he couldn't help but think that it symbolised Pepper, because she had take him, and stripped off every mask and wall that he had to keep everybody out, and she hadn't been scared by what was underneath. He wrapped her tighter in his arms, and he didn't know if he would ever be able to let go again. He shut his eyes, squeezing them tight, and just listened to the never ending beating of Pepper's heart. He wished and prayed that it would never stop while he was alive, because if it did, he didn't know if he would be able to live with out her, and he doubted he could. Because everything that he did revolved around Pepper. Going to board meetings made Pepper happy. Sleeping regularly made Pepper worry less. Even the Iron Man siut was to protect Pepper, even if that wasn't what he had made it for in the first place.

He could feel all of the Avenger stares directed at him and Pep, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. All the matrered was that him and Pepper were together again, and nothing could seperate them.

**A/N- I know, nothing much happened in this chapter, but the next one will have more talking between the Avemgers and Pepper. Please leave a review :) Thanks for reading!**

**Fullmetalsoul0062**


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